Hoffman Picking Next Project

Dustin Hoffman has been spending a joyeux holiday in Paris with his wife and their three young children -- and deciding which film he`ll do next.

It won`t be The Ditto List, the big-screen comedy about a divorce lawyer that`s been in development for several years -- and was supposed to mark Hoffman`s next turn before the cameras.

It could be a drama called Diamonds for United Artists. Or one of two other movies ``that have just come along, that are both very good,`` reports Hoffman`s attorney, Bert Fields. Fields doesn`t feel free to give details just yet but says, ``We should be ready to make an announcement the beginning of January.`` He adds, ``Dustin expects to be before the cameras in one of those projects by springtime -- at the latest.``

Fields also says Hoffman hasn`t discarded Ditto List plans -- just delayed them. He told me several months ago that the star was moving the project from Columbia ``to one of several other studios that are pursuing him.`` Those studios have not as yet picked up Ditto; that goes ditto for Hollywood`s other film factories. But Fields says Hoffman`s not anxious about the situation.

``He totally controls the project, and so he can be flexible about when it`s done.``